ME: Does it connect with political stuff -- the war on terror...?Also, we discussed the negative Roger Ebert review, and I speculated that Ebert marked it down because he picked up a right wing vibe.
CHRIS: Yes, because it's set in the present day, and at one point the little girl asks, "Are they terrorists?"
ME: So, is it left wing?
CHRIS: No.
ME: Is it right wing?
CHRIS: I don't think it's right wing, because the people who made it are probably liberals, but I think right wing people could really get into it. If you're really into the war on terrorism, you could probably get into it as symbolic of the war on terrorism, because it shows the American military trying to fight against the aliens, and it has a teenage son who wants to join the American military in the fight against the aliens.
ME: And he's a positive character?
CHRIS: Yeah, he's the main son... he's Tom Cruise's son.
ME (noticeably typing): Is there anything else you'd like to say?
CHRIS: It's a real experience to watch the movie.
ME: That's what you want to say "it's a real experience to watch the movie"?
CHRIS: Yeah. I saw it on the Ultra-Screen and I was sitting pretty close to the front, so it was like an IMAX.
July 5, 2005
Have you seen "War of the Worlds"?
Chris (my 22 year old son) just saw it and gives it the highest praise. Dialogue:
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I didn't get the political overtone at all. There's a definite family message, but is that righty-ish? And yes, the girl asks if the attackers are the terrorists, but isn't it realistic that that's her frame of reference?
I saw Ebert's comments on his show and I think his reaction was the same as mine--underwhelmed The aliens and tripods weren't awesome and the teenage son is the only interesting character.
Maybe the bar was too high.
I think Ebert had a problem because he is a pretty hard core S-F fan and Spielberg has produced a movie that, well, isn't.
On the other hand, if he'd seen the truly unbelievable version produced by Pendragon Pictures (English company) and released direct to DVD to coincide with the premiere of the Spielberg flick, well, he might have been a lot happier with Spielberg's interpretation.
Kathleen: His attitude toward a movie may be influenced by factors that don't appear in the text of the review. I'm sure they are in fact.
And I think a liberal alien movie would be "Close Encounters" or "E.T." -- to name to Spielberg movies that someone like Ebert would compare this to. In those two movies, the good people tried to understand the aliens and the bad people came in with the military. We in the audience always knew that the military solution was wrong in those earlier films.
We saw it on Saturday night, and I thought it was an excellent summertime monster thriller. However, in taking our 10-year old, who is quite the cynical veteran of PG-13 movies, we earning the "bad parents" award. Like my daughter, the stalked and terrified little girl in the movie is about 10, blonde, blue-eyed, loves horses, etc. Tears were had.
Kathleen: You seem to be conveniently failing to notice that this -- and E.T. and Close Encounters -- are works of fiction. The set-up is chosen. Even if it's true in real life that everyone with any sense at all will respond in self-defense in certain dire situations, a movie maker with a liberal message will shape the setting so that the understanding and dialogue solution is really the best.
And I prefer to speculate about underlying motives.
The movie, at least for the first hour, is one of the most thorough on-screen nightmares put to film. It's a holocaust movie, basically. Visuals are lifted directly out of "Night and Fog" and 911 news footage. I found the film fairly admirable in how non-partisan it is, and it always appeals to me when someone can demonstrate how unimportant politics ultimately are.
Incidentally, I don't think Ebert has ever given a bad review to a Jennifer Lopez film, including The Cell. He comes across kinda horny in a lot of his reviews. Biased he's not.
I thought it was neither right-wing nor left wing. Ideology just seemed to melt away in the face of horrid disaster. People trying to go about things the stereotypical right wing way (with violence and combat) failed horribly, but it was very obvious that any sort of diplomacy would've failed just as badly.
Kathleen: excellent point.
I have already seen it twice! It is the first movie in twenty years that has really scared the heck out of me! That was the first hour. I could realy have done without the lengthy crazy man in the basement parts, but it had to show the aliens searching for food... I enjoyed it immensely. Political or not.
Haven't had the pleasure of seeing it yet, but last night on TCM there was an interesting show about aliens in the movies, featuring Ridley Scott, James Cameron, and Steven Spielberg, and Spielberg was quite frank about how WotW was a departure from his generally hopeful, left-wing alien movies of the past, viz. E.T. and Close Encounters. They also talked about the many great alien movies of the 1950s.
I got broed, though, and went back to watching the Babylon 5 Season 1 DVDs. Much better, IMHO, than any Spielbergian alien movie.
I saw the movie recently as well. Honestly, it's not really political either way, although there are definitely political touchstones.
For the right, the initial attack echoes 9/11 especially with people getting turned to ash by the heat rays and the ash settling over the survivors. The military is also portrayed in a positive light. And there's a definite pro-family edge.
OTOH, Wells' allegory is about a superpower getting defeated by their arrogance. There are lines about failed occupations, the son is doing a paper on the French in Algeria at the start of the movie in addition to the basement sequence. And, one of the war machines is brought down by a "suicide bomber" type attack. And some of the mob scenes turn quite ugly, people don't always pull together in a time of crisis.
There are some political points to discuss, but at the end of the day it's a story about aliens invading and causing massive damage. And, for the first 2/3rds, it's gripping and thrilling.
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